The Mary Sue Books and More Club discussion

I thought it would be fun for all of us to talk about the books we loved in 2015! What better way to figure out a last minute read to finish your reading goal for the year than a recommendation for one of your fellow group members? So please, talk about your favorite books from this year! I'll be adding mine just as soon as I can narrow down the list.

I’m unilaterally declaring The Dolorous Adventure of Brother Banenose the best book of 2015! I’m proud of the years of hard work that went into making it, so why shouldn’t my biased opinion count? Maybe it’ll be on your Best of 2015 lists too?

I'm always here for that!

My favourite fantasy was N.K. Jemisin's Fifth Season, my favourite sf is either Ancillary Mercy or My Real Children by Jo Walton, and I also loved Courtney Milan's Trade Me. And I devoured a few different Kelly Link collections, Pretty Monsters being probably my favourite.

And then there's Sarah Rees Brennan so terribly underappreciated Turn of the Story, which is an amazing YA novel available to read online for free.

When it comes to literary fiction, Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie was great albeit annoying at moments, and Nicola Griffith's Hild was impressive and sweeping and beautiful.

I had quite a few favorites this year: I loved Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson, Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari as well as You're Never Weird on the Internet by Felicia Day for non-fiction titles.

Graphic Novels: Bitch Planet, Saga Vol 4 and 5, Rat Queens Vol 2 and The Wicked + The Divine Vol 2. And Ms. Marvel as well as all the Buffy comics published this year.

I normally read a ton of fiction, but this year I did not find as many. I really liked The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich (YA Horror), Uprooted by Naomi Novik and Winter by Marissa Meyer.

The best book that I read this year was probably The Kind Worth Killing. I go through periods where I'll devour particular types of books, but I always come back to thrillers/mysteries and this one topped all the others that I read this year. I even sent a copy to my mom.

My Real Children is my favorite easily. Maybe because I only just read it so it's fresh in my mind, but it was so incredibly affecting. I cried. That and Paladin of Souls. Defiantly.

I've got a tie going.

When I think about the favorite book, it's always one that I thought about the most. I was absolutely haunted by Lionel Shriver's We Need to Talk About Kevin. Serious trigger warnings there for violence. It was brilliant and upsetting.

My other favorite is totally unexpected. I was attracted to it because it was written by Rush's Neil Peart and I just found that so interesting. But the book was incredibly good, a really fun fantasy novel that stole my heart- Clockwork Lives.

Brittany wrote: "I thought it would be fun for all of us to talk about the books we loved in 2015! What better way to figure out a last minute read to finish your reading goal for the year than a recommendation for..."

good topic Brittany! I'm logging all these suggestions in my "to read" pile as I read them.

Agreed with The Fifth Season and Uprooted - both of them were five star books for me. I was already a fan of both authors, so it wasn't a surprise that I enjoyed their releases this year.

A few others that I would recommend: Station Eleven, Ancillary Justice, A Room With a View (surprise favorite!), The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.

A good manga series I read is A Bride's story. I'm a bit of a hopeless romantic & this is relatively historically accurate, beautifully illustrated & has such interesting characters.

I re-read one called The Other Wes Moore. It's about 2 men with the same name, both in single parent households, in Baltimore. One is a Rhodes scholar & the other is in prison for murder. The choices they made in their lives that took them down such different paths makes it really interesting. It's still very relevant in these current times.

Apparently I read quite a few books I absolutely loved this year. Most of it's fantasy fiction, because haha me branching out why would I ever.

• Three Parts Dead is a cleverly assembled fusion of urban and high fantasy where every piece of the climax settles so precisely and naturally into place that it completely blew my mind. Also, there's a Darkwing Duck reference. If you only pick one of my recommendations to try, make it this one.

• Uprooted gets a thirding from me for its strong Polish fairy tale vibe and Naomi Novik continuing to deliver the kind of solid, exciting storytelling I expect from her.

• Cold Fire is the first part of an alternate history fantasy trilogy featuring magic-users, fae-type spirits, dragons, zombies, troll lawyers who are actually sentient feathered raptors that survived to the 1800s, and delicious liberal politics.

• The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 1: The Faust Act and The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 2: Fandemonium for one-day graphic novel fixes, the first because the concept is just as intriguing as it sounds and the second because it really nails the idea of shaking everything up.

• What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions really gave my brain a workout, so I wouldn't recommend it for your last book of the year if you're trying to finish a reading challenge or anything, but it is chock full of delicious math and science from the creator of XKCD, so I'd line this one up for January.

• George Washington Is Cash Money: A No-Bullshit Guide to the United Myths of America by the guy behind Myths RETOLD (including that post about chivalry some of you may have seen back in the fall) is also incredibly solid, and short enough that you could definitely finish it in the coming week. Read it to alleviate the stress of dealing with relatives!

Brittany wrote: "I thought it would be fun for all of us to talk about the books we loved in 2015! What better way to figure out a last minute read to finish your reading goal for the year than a recommendation for..."

Come on, Brittany, we're waiting to hear yours still! :)

My favorite reads of the year definitely went to comics! I fell in love with Kelly Sue DeConnick (who I'm actually already disenchanted with over Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps, but I'm making excuses for her and blaming Marvel).

BUT my absolutely favorite, top read(s) of 2015 were Rat Queens, Vol. 1: Sass & Sorcery and Rat Queens, Vol. 2: The Far Reaching Tentacles of N'rygoth. These comics were so fun to read, the characters are all greatly developed and have distinct, amazing personalities and backstories. Fantasy at its best right there.

I also really enjoyed Bitch Planet, Vol 1: Extraordinary Machine and Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant.

As for non comics, I enjoyed a couple memoirs: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? and I Can't Believe It's Not Better were so funny. So, so funny. And I really enjoyed Caitlin Moran; I will be making a point to read some more of her this new year.

I also really enjoyed Uprooted towards the end of the year. It was a fun read that kept me entertained throughout the entire book; which I think is pretty amazing.
Woman on the Edge of Time was another book that kept me intrigued throughout.

I read The Female Man with another group and I really loved it, but I think only reading and discussing it with the group made me push through it in the first place. It was pretty confusing and frustrating, but discussing it and seeing what other people were getting out of it made it probably one of my favorite reads of ever. If there is such a thing as books made for groups, this is one of them.

I'll also be adding a few of you peoples' (Idk, how else do I address all of you as a group and singularly at the same time?!) favorites to my to-read list :) thanks for the indirect recs!

Anita wrote: "Idk, how else do I address all of you as a group and singularly at the same time?!"

Embrace the y'all. "A few of y'all's favorites" just rolls off the tongue.

Effing wrote: "Embrace the y'all. "A few of y'all's favorites" just rolls off the tongue."

LOL is it that obvious that I'm trying so hard to not use "y'all"?! The hubs is from Texas so I feel like a poser trying to use it. Hahaha.

Anita and Effing, I totally love the y'all. I moved to Arizona 19 or so years ago and immediately it came into my speech patterns. It's a wonderful and terrible conjunction.

Most of my family is from various points south, so I've always had a stronger inclination to use it than the average Ohioan, but I finally gave in when I took a semester of Latin and it was quicker than writing "you (pl)". You just can't argue with verbal conjugation.

My fav Norwegian book is Evna, the third in the series the raven rings. Fantasy. My fav non-Norwegian book is probably The darkest place in the forest, by Holly Black, also fantasy.

My highlights were:
Sci-Fi: The Martian
Play: August Osage County
Non-Fiction: Creativity Inc.

and 2015 will always be the year I binged on the Outlander books.

Oops, I never did share mine.

I couldn't narrow it down to just one, so here we go.

The Accident Season was quite possibly my absolute favorite, it was written very beautifully and the story was very interesting and unique.

I also loved The Darkest Part of the Forest, Holly Black has always been one of my favorite authors, and her newest book was no exception.

A wonderful series I started this year was the Throne of Glass series. If you love fantasy definitely check this one out.

My favorite graphic novel was Nimona, I followed it when it was a webcomic, but I reread it when it came out in physical form and still loved it just as much as I had the first time.

I checked out my Year in Books (loving this feature) and the books that I gave five stars to are:

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Afterworlds
Invisible Monsters Remix (my first Palahniuk book but definitely not my last!)
Our Endless Numbered Days
The Three

I'd definitely recommend all of these, I absolutely loved them!

My favorites of 2015 were:
Landline by Rainbow Rowell
Carry On by Rainbow Rowell
The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness
Lumberjanes
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

I actually gave a five star rating to several other books last year, which surprised me, but I'll go with the ones above. They all definitely stayed with me long after I read them.

I enjoyed the entire Gregor the Overlander series by Suzanne Collins. I liked it better than the Hunger Games books and I hope she writes more along those lines in the future.

I binged the entire Chi's Sweet Home manga series, the last volume of which was published near the end of the year. Adorable kitty antics! Twelve volumes of adorable kitty antics!

My surprise loves were Serafina and the Black Cloak and Daughters of Arkham.

yea i gotta second Ancillary Mercy (the third and final in the trilogy) and Uprooted. The Ancillary books and Uprooted just totally blew me away and renewed my faith in contemporary sci-fi and fantasy. They were just so well written and so compelling and interesting and thoughtful. There was like absolutely no fluff in either of them.

Jesse

I LOVED the Ancillary series. They were problem the best things I read last year. Who wrote "uprooted"?

Lisa wrote: "Jesse

I LOVED the Ancillary series. They were problem the best things I read last year. Who wrote "uprooted"?"

Uprooted is by Naomi Novik. Check it out!

I just finished Ancillary Sword and am looking forward to Mercy.

You all have to stop. Too many books too little time.